Nadal Satisfied With Wimbledon Performance

Wimbledon, Great Britain

Just when it looked like Rafael Nadal had reversed the trend on his Wimbledons of late, the two-time champion ran into Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round on Tuesday. The teenage upstart stunned the No. 2 seed with a 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3 performance on Centre Court.

Tuesday's result adds to Nadal's string of comparatively early exits from a tournament he's won twice and where he's finished a runner-up on three other occasions. In 2012, Nadal suffered a second-round defeat to Lukas Rosol. Last year, he bowed out in the first round to Steve Darcis. This year, despite the fourth-round exit, the 28 year old holds his head up high. Nadal played injury-free and on the heels of winning a record ninth Roland Garros title.

“I am satisfied the way that I played this Wimbledon,” said Nadal. “The surface here is dangerous and my draw was not easy. I have not played against easy players," said the Spaniard. "Today my opponent decided to serve so big and play so aggressively from the baseline.

“This year I felt my knee was right to compete here. I think I competed well. [It] was not enough today, but that's the sport,” said Nadal.

Entering the clash with Kyrgios, the World No. 1 dropped opening sets in his early-round matches, trailing against Martin Klizan in the first round, Rosol in the second round and Mikhail Kukushkin in the third. Nadal continued that trend with his Australian opponent in the fourth round.

“I was not able to read [Kyrgios’] serve during the entire match,” said Nadal. “I was not able to put enough returns inside. In the tie-break he was able to serve better than me. That's an advantage.

“Congratulations to him. For me, I’m going to go to the beach in Mallorca,” Nadal continued. “[I’ll] have some weeks off with the great weather there, enjoying some holidays with family and friends.”

Despite the loss to a player ranked outside the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, the Spaniard is happy in his assessment of his Wimbledon performance.

“I fought until the end on every single match. I was able to play some good tennis on this surface. That's something that I was not able to do in the last two years.”

Nadal now begins his preparation for hard-court events in North America. He is the defending champion of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati, and is also the reigning champion of the US Open.

“After a few weeks I am going to start practice again to prepare another important part of the season."